The Slaying of the Beast
by NekoMarik
Summary: Very rough and unedited- this is just to get plans laid out.


Yugi ran through the forest as fast and as hard as he possibly could, struggling to breathe deeper and deeper as he pushed on harder and ran more out of breath. Jonouchi raced on beside him, both of them running hopelessly on to evade the pursuers who followed them with their guns and their eagerness to kill the monster that was Yugi. They had heard no shots for a long time, nothing to tell them that their pursuers were still pursuing. Still they ran on, feeling the despair eating at them. They had to stop, they were so tired- but they might be there, waiting to kill them- to hurt them...so they ran on. And on. And on. At last they stopped, Yugi falling against a tree, throwing his full weight against its sturdy trunk. He let his head fall back, sucking in deep gulps of air, heart beating far, far too quickly as he slid down to sit. Jonouchi fell to the ground beside him, looking around, his senses sharp, unlike the deadened, exhausted weight of his limbs. There was only the soft rustle of the wind...and the sharp cracking of twigs...their purs...u...ers...

_Bang!_

The shot rang through the silence, but the two boys could not summon the energy to get up and support their bodies on their feeble legs. Helplessly, they breathed as quietly as they could, for their bodies were so deprived of oxygen they could not hold their breath for the slightest second. Another shot rang through the blue, still forest, so serene in the silvery moonlight that shone through the soft green leaves of the grey tree branches; it was unbelievable that there were monsters hunting in the forest...monsters hunting a helpless and lonely creature. There was another shot through the forest, but this one hit far too close to them...it hit their tree, the bark making a horrednous splitting sound. Now they could hear the loading of ammunition into guns...and the preparations to shoot them...but getting up would only reveal their position, as sure as the wolf's bane kills the hapless wolf. Yet flight was not an option, for all their strength was gone. So they waited quietly among the lush foliage of the windy night, waited for death with the desperate hope of life.

Anitha looked around in the woods, peering through the lush growth of plants for any place the fugitives might be hiding. She had to kill that monster, that werewolf, that butcher of small children and killer of the darkened night that ripped when the white light of the moon was there to feed its devil's transformation. The wolf and the boy...they had stopped here, fallen from sheer exhaustion, she was sure of it. Marcus had seen it to, and so had the others...but their exact position had yet to be found out, so through shooting and careful walking they were sought.

Otzu searched the ground, kicking at thick bushes and dodging swiftly around tree trunks to rule out any possible shelter, gun at the ready to shoot the werewolf. The guy he had with him...that "friend," he guessed, well...he didn't necessarily have to die, only the wolf...if they shot him it would only by accident, and they could either take him with them to safety, or leave him there, whichever he wished...still, he was with the wolf, so all the random shots being fired by Marcus, Anitha, and Dawn would probably hit one of them. If it happened to be the monster, good. If it happened to be the friend, hopefully it wouldn't be fatal. But if it was, oh well- it was his fault for being with the wolf, and he could have stopped running or come out any time if he wanted his life spared, he knew that. Marcus fired two shots in quick succession...and this time, a small cry and a soft howl of despair sounded through the air. Quickly, the four of them ran to the spot where the cry had sounded from- and where the bullets had landed.

Yugi turned in stunned horror as he saw his friend's face twist in pain as he let out a soft cry. Yugi let out a howl of despair- there was no help for them now, they were going to die- and it was all his fault that Jonouchi was involved in the first place, his fault for being unwilling to go into the forest alone, his fault for being a coward, unable to deal with his transformations. And now, just when it was all over and they had been on their way back... Suddenly his train of thought was ripped away into a new direction, as the scent of Jonouchi's blood and seared flesh pierced his nostrils and entered into his brain...he was hungry, and that monstrous side of him, that wolf, had to eat...had to have fresh blood...but he fought against the thoughts, and in the few precious fractions of lifetime left to them both, he pulled one bullet gently out of his friend's arm and the other out of his abdomen. Jonouchi groaned, letting out a trembling breath and falling back. Yugi caught him, leaning his head against the tree trunk...the hunters were coming, this precious time together was almost gone...he covered the sight of Jonouchi's wounds with his hands and leaned his head softly against him, saying his last prayers, funeral orations for them both as the silhouettes of the assassins appeared in front of them, clear-cut to the hopeless Yugi and murky shadows of death to the exhausted Jonouchi.

The hunters found the blonde boy clutching his upper arm, one hand on his side as blood trailed from the wounds, the arm-blood mixing with the stomach-blood on its path to the woodland floor, perspiration covering his face as he hyperventilated, struggling to hide the pain, though soft moans and low cries continually broke out from his throat. The werewolf had the look of bloodlust in his eyes, looking at the wounds and at them, arms over the wounded boy that sat next to him with his eyes half-open, apprehensively set on the hunters, following their every move as they surrounded their already caged target. Otzu pointed his gun at the werewolf's forehead, right in the center- he would die as pathetically as the monster Goliath. A shudder racking his entire body, the wolf's friend gave a small cough, lifting his drooping right arm to clutch Yugi's sleeve, and muttered out his last words:

"Please..." he said, almost sobbing with the despair and overwhelming mental and physical pain, "please, please don't kill him..."

Otzu's eyes narrowed as he looked at the boy, watching as his head fell back against the wolf's arm, eyes barely open as he clutched at himself and at the wolf's sleeve. The wolf didn't say anything, his face twisting in...was it pain?...when the blonde begged for him. As the boy dropped back onto his arm, though, the wolf's expression of complete fear and despair...it had to be for himself...returned. He had no pity, no compassion, no feeling for this boy who lay bleeding and dying beside him, who had just spoken for him...no human concern, Otzu told himself, and he raised the gun...to the boy's head. The boy whimpered and closed his eyes, head falling back against the werewolf, shuddering at the final feeling of the cold gun as it followed his movement. The werewolf growled and lifted his right arm off his friend's wound, his instincts leading him to protect his prey...but Dawn grabbed his wrist before he could strike Otzu. Still exhausted from running, the werewolf's feeble struggles were nothing, and his howls and his pleadings for mercy...at least leave Jonouchi alone, please, leave Jonouchi alone, were ignored, for they were insincere, a pathetic attempt at imitating human emotion. Marcus shot him twice, and his head fell back, struggles stopping and silvery tail falling limp with the rest of his body. Dawn dropped his carcass on the ground, and they turned to look at Otzu.

Gun still pointed at the second boy's head, no longer against his forehead- he'd fallen to the gorund when Dawn had pulled the werewolf away- Otzu prodded the boy with his foot, telling him to look up.

The boy turned his face towards him, his eyes opening wide- there were tears in them as he looked over at the spot where the werewolf's body had been carelessly thrown...

Yugi was dead...dead...his best friend was dead...murdered...shot in the stomach...dead...he'd seen him as he struggled one last time and begged for, not his own life, but for Jonouchi's, seen him killed without mercy, heard him let out a whimper of pain in that last second of life, had seen him fall limp, seen him tossed aside like undesirable garbage, almost like toxic venom...

His mind was frozen, shocked...over him stood a man holding a gun, to kill him, please let it be quick....his mouth was forming words....his side and arm hurt so much, so, so much... his mind and heart empty and shattered...he could hear those words in his head....not Jonouchi, please, not Jonouchi...he'd been so pitiful, eyes wide and scared, begging helplessly, desperately...not Jonouchi...not Jonouchi....but he'd said them in vain, for now Jonouchi was going to die, the gun was being lowered down against his head, the man was still talking...Jonouchi closed his eyes...his best friend was dead, their prayers hadn't been heard...one last prayer for mercy he sent up to the heavens, a prayer begging for mercy on Yugi's soul and on his... a tear leaking out of the corner of his closed eyelid, Jonouchi accepted death, shuddering, for there was no more left for him in Life.

Otzu's questions, inquiries as to whether or not the boy wanted mercy, whether or not he wanted to live- they were ignored. He straightened up, taking in a deep breath, hardening himself for what he was about to do. A few seconds of silence, then...he shot the boy lying on the ground, steeling himself against the whimper the the boy gave, the bang reaching his ears before the bullet reached his head. One spasm of the body, and he was dead, blood trailing from his head now, the bleeding werewolf lying only a few feet away from him.

A sense of disturbance nested in Otzu's heart, disturbance at what he had just seen, done, condoned. He could not lie to himself, he felt that punishment would come, whether legal or divine, physical or mental, he knew it would come- because the seed of guilt had not yet been fully erased from his conscience.

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The only thing that really, really bugs me aboiut this story is this- Jou was not supposed to die yet, and I killed him off in the haze of inspiration. So I'm looking at it as Plan B of my story- I still need to find a way to make Jonouchi live.


End file.
